Danny Boy - The Ballad That Bewitched the World


Danny Boy - The Ballad That Bewitched the World

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ELVIS: # Oh, Danny boy... #

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Danny Boy has captivated millions.

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Elvis Presley believed the song must have been "written by angels".

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There is something about the lyric.

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It is so personal yet universal.

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And it sounds like it's absolutely speaking to the centre of you.

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From its birth in 1913,

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when an English barrister added lyrics to an ancient Irish melody,

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Danny Boy has travelled on a quite unprecedented journey.

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# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy

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# The pipes are calling # Oh, Danny boy...#

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It became an anthem for the troops during World War I.

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For the Irish diaspora, it triggered tantalising memories

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of the land they'd left behind.

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All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you were there!

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# But come ye back... #

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1940s Hollywood musicals also embraced Danny Boy,

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while country musicians tapped into the song's dark themes.

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It just puts it out there -

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he's dead, somebody is walking above his grave...

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It's chilling in that way.

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In the 1980s, Danny Boy helped Barry McGuigan unite a troubled Ireland.

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Whether you were Catholic or Protestant,

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they all felt that Danny Boy belonged to them. They owned it.

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It even allowed New Yorkers to grieve in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

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That song moves people,

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and isn't that the idea?

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You want to move people?

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Throughout these very different eras, Danny Boy has survived.

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And flourished.

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It's going to go on for ever, that song.

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Because it touches something deep in the soul.

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# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy

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# I love you so... #

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It has mystery, Danny Boy.

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And that's a great thing for a song to have.

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# Danny boy, I love you so. #

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DANNY BOY PLAYED ON FIDDLE

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In 1851, in the County Londonderry town of Limavady,

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according to local myth,

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a music collector, Jane Ross, was intrigued by a beautiful melody

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she heard drifting across the town's main street.

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It was being played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry.

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One day Jane heard Jimmy playing this beautiful melody,

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so she went across and she asked him to play it

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over and over and over again,

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until she had taken down every note.

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Jane Ross passed it on to Dublin antiquarian George Petrie,

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who published it in 1855 in The Ancient Music of Ireland.

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This help spread the tune further afield.

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It became known as the Londonderry Air.

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Whoever had originally created this ancient melody,

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had constructed something quite brilliant.

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I think there's something about the way music works on our emotions

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that is more visceral and powerful, in a way, than words.

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# Dah, dah, dah, dahahh... #

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It's quite an unusual opening.

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And it doesn't start on a downbeat,

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it leaves three notes before you have the first downbeat.

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So you've got this slight sense of floating.

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It's one of these tunes that gives you the opportunity to use

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a lot of major chords, alternating with minor chords.

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Each phrase has a very similar, arched structure,

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and so it rises and then falls.

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It's almost like the sun coming out

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and then the clouds passing over it again, all the time.

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Which is very Irish!

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But I think that's what gives the song its poignancy.

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# Lah dah dah dahhh... #

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WORDLESS VOCALISING

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It's this... # Five, six, seven, eight... #

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..that are the degrees of scale, or... # Sol, la, ti, do... #

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And then it has got this wonderful leap up to the third.

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# Lah dah dah DAH... #

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And then an ending phrase,

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which starts with the same notes that the whole song started with.

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But then...

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It has a little ending phrase which is kind of tying it up

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and putting a little ribbon on it.

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By 1910, the Londonderry Air had yet to enter the gardens of middle England.

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That year, a successful English lawyer based in Bath,

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who moonlighted as a popular lyric writer, put pen to paper.

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Fred Weatherly was a barrister.

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He lived between 1848 and 1929,

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but all his life he was a songwriter.

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He seemed to have a facility for writing verses very easily.

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Weatherly was prolific.

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As well as penning over a thousand lyrics for tunes of the day,

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he wrote children's books, novels and poetry.

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But in 1910, Fred was uncharacteristically stumped.

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He just couldn't find a melody to fit his Danny Boy lyrics to.

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So he shelved the freshly-inked verses and waited for inspiration.

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Fred was still waiting two years later, when he was visited

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by Eddie and Margaret, his brother and sister-in-law,

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who lived in Colorado.

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Eddie had emigrated to the States and married Margaret,

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the daughter of an Irish immigrant.

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While growing up, Margaret had fallen in love with the old Irish airs her father sang to her.

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Fred later claimed that "a sister-in-law" had posted him

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the Londonderry Air sheet music from across the Atlantic ocean.

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In Fred's autobiography, he specifically uses the words

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"sent by my sister-in-law from America."

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That's therefore the story that was handed down in the family.

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Quite why he uses those particular words,

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when it now appears that he was actually introduced to it first-hand,

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is a bit of a mystery.

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For decades, the world believed this was the truth -

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that Fred had been sent the sheet music all the way from Colorado.

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But new research by Fred's great-grandson,

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based on Margaret's writings,

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reveals how she sang the melody to Fred at his home in Bath.

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And she said that she then sang the melody of the Londonderry Air,

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and Fred, sitting at the piano, took up the melody

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and said, "This is the most beautiful melody I have ever heard."

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After waiting two years for a melody to fit his Danny Boy verses,

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Fred, who had never set foot in Ireland,

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quickly realised that with just a few tweaks

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they would fit the Londonderry Air perfectly.

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Weatherly, when he did that, was, like, "Hallelujah!"

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I have hit the jackpot here - emotionally.

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Financially, it's probably going to work out too!

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There's that feeling as a songwriter,

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when you get it right! I bet that's what Weatherly did - "Yeah!"

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But not everyone was thrilled.

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Margaret Weatherly had planned to set her own lyrics to the air.

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When Danny Boy was published,

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she felt from then on that her words would never be heard.

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And that in many ways her birthright had been stolen by Fred.

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-SCRATCHY RECORDING

-# Oh, Danny boy... #

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Danny Boy was published in 1913, on the eve of World War I.

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With no credit given to Margaret.

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Its lyrics immediately intrigued people.

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There's been a lot of speculation about Danny himself,

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and the pipes that are calling him.

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Calling him where?

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Calling him to what?

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People are very ingenious when it comes to inventing scenarios

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that fit the deliberately ambivalent nature of Weatherly's lyrics.

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As World War I began, Danny Boy, soaked in images of loss,

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but also hinting at a possible reunion,

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took on a special significance during these terrible times.

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Quite a number of people actually see in the lyrics of the song

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a young man going off to war.

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The pipes are calling.

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Inviting a young man to take up uniform and go off to the war.

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The tune, the melody, is so evocative

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and the words that Weatherly put to the tune of Danny Boy

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just evoked a sense of longing, I think it is.

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And if you look at the postcards of the time,

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they are beautifully drawn,

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beautifully coloured, with soldiers saying goodbye and leaving,

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and so the notion that even war itself was sentimental.

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What's powerful about this song is that it's not sentimental,

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and yet everything in the song suggests it should be.

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The sentiment involved, knowing that they are going to be

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in war, under high risk of death,

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means that they are living on the edge.

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Danny Boy sums up that edge,

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in exactly the same way as We'll Meet Again does.

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"If, when you come, all the flowers are dying,

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"If I am dead, as dead I well may be,

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"Please come and find the place where I am lying,

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"And kneel and say an Ave there for me."

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A Long Way To Tipperary, Danny Boy -

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these were songs that became emotional anthems for the people

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who had to do the unthinkable, which was to possibly die.

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English opera singers like Elsie Griffin

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even sang Danny Boy while entertaining the troops in France.

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The song perfectly evoked all the hopes and fears of the British soldiers who fought during the war.

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You have First World War, you had the production of phonographs,

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you had the record industry taking off at the same time.

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You had the popularity of the music hall,

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the popularity of particular singers

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who gathered international reputations.

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It wasn't long before it gathered quite an appeal.

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Over 200,000 Irishmen fought in World War I.

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Those that returned

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brought Danny Boy back from the trenches with them.

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But Ireland was now a very different place from the one they had left behind.

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In 1916 in Dublin, the revolutionary leaders of the Easter Rising

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had demanded independence for Ireland,

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after centuries of being ruled by England.

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When they were executed by the English,

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their deaths provoked a new desire for freedom amongst Irish nationalists.

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As WB Yeats declared - "A terrible beauty is born."

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The song had certainly an appeal to the Irish,

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particularly during the turbulent years leading

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from the uprising in 1916 through to the War of Independence.

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Many people could relate very easily with Danny Boy at this stage,

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with threats of death, with hopes for the future.

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Danny Boy caught the mood of change during this era.

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But the lyrics were not intended to be political.

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For some Irish, Danny Boy didn't give them all that it wanted,

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so it was decided to add a third verse.

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This third verse, in fact, actually was political.

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# But if I leave

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# And should you die for Ireland... #

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With the missing third verse, this is precisely what it does.

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It takes the story of Danny and the original voice

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of the first two verses,

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and projects it into a particular political context -

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that of Ireland attempting to free itself.

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After signing the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty,

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the South of Ireland became a free state,

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separating from the North,

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which was now part of the United Kingdom.

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Fred Weatherly appreciated that the song was resonating with

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the Irish, but he firmly believed that his tune was non-divisive.

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In his 1926 autobiography, Fred wrote that it was

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"Sung all over the world by Sinn Feinners and Ulstermen alike."

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So he had this notion of the song being all inclusive,

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and indeed it is.

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So the song works on a personal level and a subjective level.

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It works on a political level, but transcends politics.

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# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling

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# From glen to glen, and down the mountain side... #

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Danny Boy was now moving across the Atlantic.

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Huge numbers of Irish had left for the New World

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in the 19th century.

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This mass migration to America continued in the 1920s

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and they took Danny Boy with them.

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A song like Danny Boy takes on a life of its own abroad,

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more so than it would at home,

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because they're home, they didn't leave.

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So, you know, it really it is the longing

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and loss of someone who's said goodbye or are the immigrant.

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And that's why it's so powerful in America.

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All you had to do was hear Danny Boy and you're there.

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It is a song about longing.

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And the Irish are very good at longing.

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They're very good at yearning.

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Their poetry is full of it.

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Their culture is full of it. Their stories are full of it.

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TRADITIONAL IRISH FOLK MUSIC

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For decades, Irish immigrants had

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been treated as second-class citizens.

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But in the 1920s and '30s,

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they were now imprinting themselves on American life.

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We broke open American society and we did it in several ways.

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With words, with boxing and sports and politics.

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We laughed at ourselves, we danced, we gloried, and in the meantime,

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were taking in songs like Danny Boy.

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# Remember then...

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The Irish tenor John McCormack was internationally

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famous during this time.

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He helped establish the tune in the States

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beyond the Irish-American communities.

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It is incredible to think, without the use of the internet

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and mobile phones,

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all of these incredible tools we have now, that man physically

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went round that enormous country and stood up, when I suppose sound equipment

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was at its most basic, and fill a room the size of a baseball stadium.

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Because people came in their thousands to hear him sing.

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RAGTIME-STYLE MUSIC

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It was only a matter of time before Danny Boy moved into

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1940s Hollywood...

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with the help of John McCormack.

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I think his version of Danny Boy would have been

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one of the conduits through which the Londonderry Air in its Danny Boy

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format would have made its way into Hollywood.

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Once there, I think film-makers would have realised its potential.

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The golden age of Hollywood musicals, featuring

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stars like Judy Garland and Diana Durbin, was in the ascendant.

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Diana Durbin was awesome. Judy Garland was a rival.

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Judy Garland considered her a rival, that's how big she was.

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You have promise, and in a few years, a very few years, possibly,

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I want you to come to me again.

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Through the picture, Diana Durbin is trying to impress

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Charles Laughton because she wants a job.

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She's being very phoney, she's putting on airs.

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And, of course, what better song to show who she really is,

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what her emotions are, the depth of her feeling,

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her ability to act, to deliver, than Danny Boy?

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I like that.

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# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... #

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'He hears it and he goes, "This woman can act, she's got depth,

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'"she can do it.'

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And that's the way Hollywood says,

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"That's how you know she's for real, people.

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"This is how you know, cos she's delivering Danny Boy."

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And boy, does she deliver!

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We'd...better get to work.

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What happens is, I think,

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is Danny Boy breaks free o' its Irish moorings

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and becomes part of the American soundscape.

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JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY

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And it becomes a standard,

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and it becomes a testing ground for people to try out new things with.

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So you have all the big jazz orchestras all have a go at it,

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because it's long enough established for people to recognise what it is,

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but yet to think, "This is different from the last version I heard.

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"This does something slightly different,

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"harmonically or in terms of its orchestration or its arrangement."

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So I think it becomes an established part of the soundscape.

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And one of those songs, one of those pieces of music that's

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instantly identifiable, yet endlessly adaptable.

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BLUESSTYLE SINGING

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# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling

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# From glen to glen... #

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Danny Boy tapped into black American moods of melancholy and hope.

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# The summer's gone... #

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So you can feel this kind of yearning for something beyond,

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yearning for something lost.

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Which I think the African-American community would have connected

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with in this song.

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Because this Irish song and the blues are so close together.

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# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow

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# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... #

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In the second half of the 1950s,

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the biggest black crossover star of the day was drawn to Danny Boy.

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The time, time of strife.

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The place, the place is Ireland.

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And as Irish legend has it, when the last rose of summer fell,

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and all the men of Ireland were to gather together and to take up arms,

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there were songs for those that stayed at home,

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and for those that went away.

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And all of Ireland was sad.

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Harry's opening monologue, I think, is all about universalism.

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I think it's about the brotherhood of man.

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# Oh, Danny boy

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# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #

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He's pulling it apart to find the power that constant usage

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and constant listening has somehow deprived us of.

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# ..The mountainside... #

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So going back, as it were, to the to the initial power of the song

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and saying, "Listen again.

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"Listen to the way I'm singing it very slowly,

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"thinking about every word.

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"Can you hear in it what I hear in it when I sing it?"

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And that's the challenge he makes of the listener.

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# But come ye back

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# When summer's in the meadow

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# Or when the valley's hushed

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# And white with snow

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# I'll be here in sunshine

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# Or in shadow

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# Oh, Danny boy

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# Oh, Danny boy

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# I'll miss you so. #

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Harry Belafonte included Danny Boy on two massive-selling

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albums in the late 1950s.

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Propelling the song far beyond the Irish

0:25:060:25:08

and black populations of America.

0:25:080:25:10

JACKIE WILSON: # Oh, Danny boy

0:25:170:25:23

# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #

0:25:270:25:33

At the very same time,

0:25:340:25:35

rhythm and blues singers were

0:25:350:25:37

teasing out a hidden side of the tune.

0:25:370:25:40

# And down the mountain side... #

0:25:410:25:47

Jackie Wilson's version is completely different from everybody else.

0:25:500:25:56

I picture slow dancing, wearing a wiggle dress...in a...

0:25:560:26:02

smoky lounge.

0:26:020:26:05

# It's you, it's you... #

0:26:050:26:07

You know, you're dancing with your friends, your boyfriend

0:26:090:26:12

and the lights are low and that's what you dance to.

0:26:120:26:16

# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... #

0:26:180:26:27

Getting a few kisses on the neck from your partner. It's totally...

0:26:270:26:31

He makes it almost sensual and sexy.

0:26:310:26:35

The song is also about your youth passing,

0:26:390:26:43

it's about a moment in time that's ending.

0:26:430:26:46

It's about when you were really happy or you were really...grounded

0:26:460:26:54

in a feeling that this is the person you should be with.

0:26:540:26:57

# Oh...

0:26:570:27:01

# For me. #

0:27:010:27:09

Rock'n'roll music, if you like it, if you feel it,

0:27:090:27:11

you can't help but move to it.

0:27:110:27:14

That's what happens to me, I can't help it,

0:27:140:27:17

I have to move around. I can't stand still.

0:27:170:27:19

I've tried it, I can't do it.

0:27:190:27:21

# Well, it's one for the money

0:27:210:27:23

# Two for the show

0:27:230:27:24

# Three to get ready, now go, cat, go

0:27:240:27:27

# But don't you step on my blue suede shoes... #

0:27:270:27:31

In 1958, the very same year

0:27:310:27:33

Jackie Wilson was recording Danny Boy,

0:27:330:27:36

the sky-rocketing career

0:27:360:27:38

of the most iconic rock'n'roll star in the world

0:27:380:27:40

was suddenly put on ice.

0:27:400:27:43

Drafted into the US Army, Elvis Presley was stationed

0:27:430:27:47

thousands of miles away in Germany.

0:27:470:27:49

That was a huge break for him, then,

0:27:510:27:53

because he became real again.

0:27:530:27:55

In other words, he was himself.

0:27:550:27:57

No-one could get at him.

0:27:570:27:59

He became thoughtful, the lyrics, the songs he chose,

0:27:590:28:04

became very much lyric, rather than rock, orientated.

0:28:040:28:07

He started doing ballads.

0:28:070:28:09

He had a huge range in his voice, Elvis.

0:28:090:28:13

And, of course, he recorded Danny Boy.

0:28:130:28:15

Danny Boy had been a Presley family favourite.

0:28:170:28:20

MUSIC: "Danny Boy" by Elvis Presley

0:28:200:28:23

# Oh Danny boy... #

0:28:230:28:27

Just before Elvis left for Germany, his mother, Gladys, died.

0:28:270:28:31

He had been incredibly close to her.

0:28:320:28:34

He'd sit there and play music and songs that reminded him of home

0:28:340:28:38

and he was desperately homesick.

0:28:380:28:41

He was definitely singing Danny Boy

0:28:440:28:47

to think of home and his dad and his family.

0:28:470:28:50

# And all the roses falling... #

0:28:520:28:57

I think he's singing it the way the song should be sung -

0:28:570:29:01

you know, the original versions from the early 1900s

0:29:010:29:05

are so operatic and...almost forceful.

0:29:050:29:11

# But come ye back when summer... #

0:29:110:29:18

And he's singing it with such a delicacy.

0:29:180:29:23

You can hear the heart break and he's plucking those guitar strings

0:29:230:29:28

like they were heart strings.

0:29:280:29:30

And he thought it was such a beautiful sound,

0:29:300:29:33

that it was hymnal, almost.

0:29:330:29:34

It was spiritual, for him.

0:29:340:29:36

"Written by angels" was a phrase that came to be associated

0:29:360:29:40

with Elvis and that song.

0:29:400:29:41

So I think that's what he saw in the song, and he was lonely -

0:29:410:29:45

you can imagine a guy, used to all the adulation and everything,

0:29:450:29:50

and being damned by preachers, because he was shaking his hips.

0:29:500:29:54

Then all of a sudden,

0:29:540:29:56

he goes to this place and he finds a spiritual way

0:29:560:30:00

of expressing himself through music.

0:30:000:30:02

And Danny Boy was one of the songs he used to do that

0:30:020:30:06

and he found out that he wasn't the Devil after all.

0:30:060:30:09

Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy

0:30:130:30:14

was now infiltrating more and more genres of music.

0:30:140:30:17

# Oh, Danny boy

0:30:180:30:21

# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #

0:30:210:30:26

Well, Irish music and country music are really related,

0:30:260:30:30

because the Irish came over

0:30:300:30:31

and went to the Appalachians,

0:30:310:30:33

and then eventually down into Nashville,

0:30:330:30:37

and the music...it didn't change that much.

0:30:370:30:41

I mean, Danny Boy sounds like a country song.

0:30:410:30:44

# It's you must go and I must stay... #

0:30:440:30:50

Country music, the narratives are so powerful.

0:30:500:30:54

There are real topics about...longing and home

0:30:540:31:02

and death and travel

0:31:020:31:04

and loss - loss beyond the loss of a love,

0:31:040:31:08

but loss of one's family, loss of one's home.

0:31:080:31:10

# ..are in shadow... #

0:31:100:31:13

There's always a little mini-drama going on in those songs,

0:31:130:31:16

and of course, within Danny Boy, that's exactly what's going on -

0:31:160:31:19

there's a little drama happening.

0:31:190:31:21

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.

0:31:210:31:23

# I hear the train a-coming

0:31:270:31:29

# It's rolling round the bend

0:31:290:31:31

# And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when... #

0:31:310:31:35

Johnny Cash's life was full of mini-dramas.

0:31:350:31:39

The mid-1960s was a turbulent time for this outlaw country star.

0:31:390:31:44

His addictions and destructive behaviour

0:31:440:31:46

resulted in a number of arrests.

0:31:460:31:48

Cash released his version of Danny Boy in 1965.

0:31:500:31:54

One of the first stories I ever remember my dad telling

0:31:560:31:59

was one that an Irish immigrant told him,

0:31:590:32:02

and according to that particular source of information,

0:32:020:32:06

there was this boy named Daniel McKinney

0:32:060:32:08

working in the fields one morning,

0:32:080:32:10

and across the fields came his sweetheart, Rosalie,

0:32:100:32:13

she came crying, with tears in her eyes.

0:32:130:32:17

Later, someone put down into a song

0:32:170:32:20

some of the things Rosalie told Daniel.

0:32:200:32:23

She said, "Daniel, there's a bloody war a-raging

0:32:230:32:27

"and I've come to tell you that they're wanting you to fight.

0:32:270:32:30

"Go, fight for Ireland, but come back to me, Daniel.

0:32:300:32:33

"I'll be waiting."

0:32:330:32:35

He's trying to establish, for the listener,

0:32:350:32:38

the importance of this song,

0:32:380:32:40

for him, as an artist -

0:32:400:32:42

where he learnt it,

0:32:420:32:44

who he learnt it from,

0:32:440:32:45

why it was important to somebody like his father,

0:32:450:32:48

with whom he has a troubled relationship.

0:32:480:32:51

And that troubled relationship continues on into the performance.

0:32:510:32:56

# But if you fall

0:32:570:33:01

# As all the flowers are fallin'

0:33:010:33:05

# And if you're dead

0:33:070:33:11

# As dead you well may be... #

0:33:110:33:14

My dad has a lot of respect for his parents

0:33:140:33:18

and he was brought up thinking that no matter...what the parent did,

0:33:180:33:24

you had to respect them, you had to show respect.

0:33:240:33:27

I think there was something deeply lacking in his relationship

0:33:270:33:31

with his dad, you know?

0:33:310:33:32

# ..an Ave there for thee

0:33:320:33:35

# But come ye back

0:33:380:33:42

# When summer's in the meadow

0:33:420:33:47

# Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow... #

0:33:480:33:55

And we know he's a troubled personality,

0:33:550:33:58

so that personality makes its way into the lyric

0:33:580:34:03

and then we see it in a different...perspective.

0:34:030:34:07

no longer as a straightforward love song.

0:34:070:34:10

# Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy

0:34:100:34:15

# I love you so. #

0:34:150:34:18

Johnny Cash glimpsed the dark shadows

0:34:200:34:23

flickering across Danny Boy.

0:34:230:34:25

The song's success in country music, Hollywood and black America

0:34:360:34:40

all boosted its reputation back in Ireland.

0:34:400:34:44

# ..here in sunshine

0:34:440:34:54

# Or in shadow... #

0:34:540:35:00

By the 1960s, the song that English barrister Fred Weatherly

0:35:000:35:04

wrote decades earlier

0:35:040:35:06

had now seeped into the very fabric of Irish life.

0:35:060:35:10

# I love you so. #

0:35:120:35:22

You sort of grew up

0:35:250:35:27

with Danny Boy just being there,

0:35:270:35:29

the way the Our Father is there.

0:35:290:35:32

It's part of growing up, it's everywhere.

0:35:320:35:35

The down side of it was...everybody has a drunk uncle

0:35:350:35:38

who sings Danny Boy, especially at family events,

0:35:380:35:41

like weddings, when you cringe.

0:35:410:35:43

But despite the number of times it has been brutalised

0:35:430:35:46

by drunk men at weddings,

0:35:460:35:48

it's still a great song.

0:35:480:35:49

# But come ye back

0:35:490:35:52

# When summer's in the meadow

0:35:520:35:56

# Or when the valley's... #

0:35:560:35:58

It's usually at the end of an evening,

0:35:580:36:01

just before you're thrown out.

0:36:010:36:03

I mean, when it gets to Danny Boy,

0:36:050:36:07

it's time to go.

0:36:070:36:09

Any person who wishes to parade...

0:36:100:36:15

SHOUTING AND SCREAMING

0:36:150:36:19

But by the late 1960s, the Troubles began.

0:36:190:36:22

Violence, both Republican and Loyalist,

0:36:280:36:32

mostly dormant since the early 1920s,

0:36:320:36:34

reasserted itself, blackening the mood of the country.

0:36:340:36:38

You'd just see that pall of gloom descend on everything.

0:36:440:36:47

And people walking with slumped shoulders

0:36:470:36:50

and no activity at night, people wouldn't go out at night.

0:36:500:36:53

Live entertainment was not happening.

0:36:530:36:55

It was very dark and what we badly needed then was a hero.

0:36:550:37:00

It was a very difficult time,

0:37:070:37:09

it was a very sad time,

0:37:090:37:11

a treacherous time,

0:37:110:37:13

and every corner you turned,

0:37:130:37:14

the flagstones were painted one colour or the other.

0:37:140:37:17

Barry McGuigan was a Catholic, born in the border town of Clones.

0:37:230:37:28

I spent my life crossing divisions and crossing barriers and borders

0:37:310:37:35

and breaking down these supposed no-nos

0:37:350:37:39

and it was very important to me.

0:37:390:37:42

I mean, the girl I grew up with and loved,

0:37:420:37:44

she lived across the road, she happened to be a Protestant.

0:37:440:37:46

And she happened to go to school in the North.

0:37:460:37:49

And I'd spent my entire life travelling into the North,

0:37:490:37:52

boxing in the North, not...just not taking notice

0:37:520:37:56

of the potential dangers.

0:37:560:37:59

That's it - McGuigan is through...

0:37:590:38:01

During his amateur years,

0:38:010:38:03

McGuigan realised boxing could be a unifying force.

0:38:030:38:08

I think sport has a unique ability to bring people together -

0:38:080:38:12

different races and different religions.

0:38:120:38:15

And I've seen it in my own life. I'm proof of it.

0:38:150:38:18

And, you know...and Danny Boy...

0:38:180:38:22

Danny Boy had a lot to do with that too.

0:38:220:38:25

At the beginning of the 1980s,

0:38:280:38:30

now a professional featherweight boxer,

0:38:300:38:32

McGuigan had a quick succession of wins.

0:38:320:38:35

Then, in 1985, he challenged the Panamanian Eusebio Pedroza

0:38:350:38:41

for the biggest prize of them all - the world title.

0:38:410:38:43

We knew that when I fought for the world title that we would have to

0:38:450:38:49

play an anthem.

0:38:490:38:51

I didn't want to play either the Irish national anthem

0:38:510:38:53

or the British national anthem. It was important,

0:38:530:38:55

and all the way through my career

0:38:550:38:58

I didn't want people feeling ill-at-ease going to my events,

0:38:580:39:01

I wanted to make them feel not threatened

0:39:010:39:03

because there was enough threatening stuff going on all around us.

0:39:030:39:05

And, so, we all decided Dad would sing Danny boy.

0:39:050:39:08

Barry's father, Pat, was a professional singer

0:39:110:39:14

and had been Ireland's entry in the 1968 Eurovision Song contest.

0:39:140:39:19

But in 1985 at Loftus Road,

0:39:210:39:23

this would be the biggest audience of his career.

0:39:230:39:26

It was Phil Coulter who arranged the version of Danny Boy

0:39:260:39:29

that Pat would sing that evening.

0:39:290:39:32

Would Pat have the bottle for it?

0:39:320:39:34

Because bearing in mind it's Barry's dad who's fighting

0:39:340:39:38

for the world title, it's a very emotional song.

0:39:380:39:40

# ..to glen and down the mountain side

0:39:420:39:48

# The summer's gone

0:39:510:39:55

# And all the flowers are dying... #

0:39:550:40:00

It was very important to me but it was also very important to him

0:40:010:40:04

because he was telling me how much he loved me, and I was

0:40:040:40:06

going into battle, and I was doing something that was very dangerous,

0:40:060:40:11

and, you know, lots of people have been killed in boxing bouts.

0:40:110:40:15

So, for him, it was not just singing to the audience,

0:40:150:40:18

but it was a message to me.

0:40:180:40:20

# But come ye back

0:40:200:40:25

# When summer's in the meadow

0:40:250:40:32

# And when the valley's hushed

0:40:320:40:38

# And white with snow

0:40:380:40:43

# 'Tis I'll be here

0:40:430:40:47

# In sunshine or in shadow... #

0:40:470:40:53

Jim Sheridan was there that night.

0:40:530:40:57

It was electric.

0:40:570:40:59

It was really powerful. And we needed that win, you know?

0:40:590:41:04

Needed that something good to happen.

0:41:040:41:08

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:41:080:41:11

It was a religious event, you know? Everybody was singing.

0:41:130:41:17

I looked around and everybody, but everybody, was singing

0:41:170:41:21

because we were getting behind our boy.

0:41:210:41:24

We were confirming our Irishness.

0:41:240:41:26

Pedroza, 5'10", four inches taller, long reach.

0:41:260:41:31

The world title fight went to the very final round.

0:41:310:41:36

Paddy Byrne in my corner said to me,

0:41:360:41:38

"Barry, you've got three minutes to beat one of the best

0:41:380:41:41

"featherweights this century." I say, "Is this the last round?"

0:41:410:41:45

"Yes, it's the last round." That's how pumped up I was,

0:41:450:41:48

that's how enthusiastic I was, and that's driven and determined I was.

0:41:480:41:53

And a part of that drive was to make sure that

0:41:530:41:57

I would win it for the people of Ireland, North and South.

0:41:570:42:00

By unanimous decision...

0:42:000:42:02

CHEERING

0:42:020:42:04

-..Barry McGuigan...

-McGuigan is the champion of the world!

0:42:040:42:10

I think it's Seamus Heaney says, "There was one amongst us who stood taller than the rest."

0:42:100:42:14

And for such a short fella, he stands very tall in our history.

0:42:140:42:18

And he is absolutely a prime example of how

0:42:180:42:22

when you're the best at something, regardless of what

0:42:220:42:25

somebody else's politics are, that's enough and people will follow.

0:42:250:42:28

And he became absolutely the epitome of what it was

0:42:280:42:32

to succeed at sport, and to rise above political division.

0:42:320:42:36

Danny Boy had shown the world it was the perfect vehicle to bridge

0:42:390:42:43

the divide between the two communities.

0:42:430:42:45

This song is probably the greatest ballad that was ever written.

0:42:450:42:49

And the words are very clever, but the melody is the thing.

0:42:490:42:53

You can wrap that melody around everything.

0:42:530:42:56

And it means so much to you.

0:42:560:42:58

If you look, in sunshine, or in shadow,

0:42:580:43:00

the song is both uplifting and melancholic.

0:43:000:43:04

I'd like to think I brought some sunshine into people's life

0:43:040:43:07

when I was fighting, I know I did.

0:43:070:43:09

And the melancholy was also something they could remember

0:43:090:43:13

and they could relate it to certain aspects of their life.

0:43:130:43:18

And Danny Boy is just a hugely, hugely amazing song.

0:43:180:43:20

RAPPING: Danny boy, Danny boy The pipes are calling...

0:43:240:43:28

By the 1990s, Danny Boy was even entering the world of New York hip-hop.

0:43:280:43:33

Danny boy! You know it's Danny boy!

0:43:330:43:37

Danny boy!

0:43:370:43:40

So huge was the song's reputation now that it was ripe for subversion.

0:43:400:43:46

DANNY BOY SCRATCHED ON TURNTABLE

0:43:460:43:48

Larry Kirwan and his Irish-American band, Black 47,

0:43:480:43:52

were taking the now sacred status of Danny Boy

0:43:520:43:56

and undermining it for their own fun.

0:43:560:43:59

My idea was to have a new Danny Boy,

0:44:010:44:05

an Irish, gay construction worker.

0:44:050:44:10

# One day on the job the foreman said

0:44:110:44:13

# Danny boy, we think you're a fag

0:44:130:44:16

# With your ponytail and that ring in your ear

0:44:160:44:18

# We don't need no homos foulin' up the air... #

0:44:180:44:21

He has interpreted Danny Boy

0:44:210:44:25

as a gay labourer, singing to his lover!

0:44:250:44:31

Here was this song that was right in front of you,

0:44:310:44:34

and you have to deal with the hero, and the hero is not unlike you.

0:44:340:44:40

The only difference is, he is a different sexuality.

0:44:400:44:43

And it just pisses people off!

0:44:430:44:48

Oh, it was like putting Silent Night to jazz, you know?!

0:44:480:44:52

HE IMITATES WHINGEING CHILD

0:44:520:44:55

But that's Larry, and he's not gay, I mean, he's...

0:44:550:44:58

But that was just his way of kind of making a bit of fun of it.

0:44:580:45:03

# But come ye back

0:45:030:45:08

# When summer's in the meadow... #

0:45:080:45:13

American movie directors like the Coen Brothers

0:45:130:45:16

also realised they could have fun with Danny Boy

0:45:160:45:18

and exploit the song for its ironic potential.

0:45:180:45:21

# ..and white with snow... #

0:45:210:45:25

They found what they believed was the most beautiful,

0:45:250:45:30

the most evocative Irish song

0:45:300:45:33

that they could find,

0:45:330:45:35

and they cut it with real violence.

0:45:350:45:37

The scene itself is operatic.

0:45:460:45:48

# ..the flowers dying

0:45:480:45:53

# If I am dead, as dead I well may be... #

0:45:530:46:01

The scene at the window, where the man uses the machine gun

0:46:010:46:05

and he shoots out the gunman,

0:46:050:46:07

that's teased out to its cartoonish extreme.

0:46:070:46:11

The action lasts for the entire length of the song.

0:46:170:46:20

The song ends when the action does.

0:46:200:46:23

To the very last chord of the orchestra,

0:46:230:46:27

which ends with the explosion of a car.

0:46:270:46:29

# ..and tell me that you love me... #

0:46:310:46:37

Everybody suspects that it's a lullaby,

0:46:390:46:41

or, you know, a nice song, a song of peace and longing,

0:46:410:46:47

and to contrast it with that level of violence is really smart.

0:46:470:46:52

You know? I'm not sure an Irish person could do that, you know?

0:46:520:46:55

Despite these occasional moments of mischief,

0:47:050:47:09

by the end of the 20th century

0:47:090:47:11

Danny Boy was increasingly viewed as a secular hymn.

0:47:110:47:14

There's sadness, there's loneliness, there's moments together.

0:47:150:47:20

There's beauty, there's flowers dying, there's flowers blooming.

0:47:200:47:23

There's kneeling and saying a prayer there.

0:47:230:47:26

But there's also, "This isn't the end, we'll meet again."

0:47:260:47:29

The Londonderry Air had been played

0:47:340:47:36

at the funerals of both President Kennedy and Princess Diana.

0:47:360:47:39

While Danny Boy itself was performed at Elvis Presley's wake.

0:47:410:47:44

There's a wonderful sense of, even though

0:47:470:47:49

we know this is the end, it's not the end.

0:47:490:47:51

And I love that about it, and I think that's what comforts people about it.

0:47:510:47:55

But in June 2001, when Danny Boy was sung

0:48:000:48:04

during the funeral of Irish-American actor Carroll O'Connor,

0:48:040:48:08

certain people believed enough was enough.

0:48:080:48:12

The archdiocese of New York, of Rhode Island, of Boston,

0:48:130:48:19

banned the singing of any secular songs

0:48:190:48:25

or any playing of secular music at funerals.

0:48:250:48:29

It so happened that these archdioceses put that ban into effect

0:48:300:48:35

just before 9/11.

0:48:350:48:39

And such bad timing you never saw in your whole life.

0:48:400:48:44

Firefighter Tim Geraghty was part of the rescue effort on 9/11.

0:48:590:49:03

Tim lost many firefighting friends that day.

0:49:050:49:08

Following the terrorist attack, he continued to work at Ground Zero.

0:49:100:49:14

So, your days were spent, you know,

0:49:160:49:19

being down there with the ironworkers,

0:49:190:49:21

and all the other rescue workers, and if they found something

0:49:210:49:24

you'd go in and assist, you'd go in and dig by hand

0:49:240:49:26

and you'd do what you could,

0:49:260:49:29

and you'd maybe pull somebody out, and it quickly became a rescue...

0:49:290:49:33

a recovery effort, rather than a rescue effort.

0:49:330:49:36

343 New York firefighters, many of them of Irish descent,

0:49:390:49:44

lost their lives on 9/11.

0:49:440:49:46

We would break for lunch in this cantina,

0:49:490:49:53

and one day this captain I was working with

0:49:530:49:55

tapped me on the shoulder and said,

0:49:550:49:57

"Hey, do you see that guy who's serving you food?"

0:49:570:49:59

I go, "Yeah." He says, "That's Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor."

0:49:590:50:03

And I looked at him, I said, "Yeah!" I go, "That's Ronan Tynan."

0:50:030:50:07

And he asked Ronan to sing a song.

0:50:070:50:11

So, Ronan finally agreed, and he had this big chef hat on,

0:50:110:50:15

so he just takes the chef hat off, he has a big spoon in his hand,

0:50:150:50:18

and he takes the spoon and he just starts singing Danny Boy.

0:50:180:50:21

# Oh, Danny boy

0:50:210:50:26

# The pipes, the pipes are calling

0:50:260:50:31

# From glen to glen

0:50:310:50:35

# And down the mountain side... #

0:50:350:50:38

And within an instant, his voice filled the whole room,

0:50:400:50:43

and the place went silent.

0:50:430:50:45

And he sang that song, and I'll tell you what,

0:50:450:50:49

there was men in there that were moved to tears.

0:50:490:50:52

It was like one of those moments, it was a goosebump moment,

0:50:520:50:55

and it was dead silent, and he sang Danny Boy, and he finished,

0:50:550:50:59

and it was still silent,

0:50:590:51:01

and he took his chef hat, he put it back on,

0:51:010:51:05

and he just sat there and he was, like, "Next!"

0:51:050:51:07

And he just started serving food again.

0:51:070:51:09

# And I shall sleep in peace

0:51:090:51:16

# Until you come to... #

0:51:160:51:23

In the aftermath of 9/11, contrary to the wishes of those

0:51:250:51:29

Catholic dioceses, Danny Boy was performed at a number of funerals.

0:51:290:51:34

Why can't Danny Boy be played?

0:51:340:51:38

Because the song moves people, and isn't that the idea?

0:51:380:51:42

You want to move people, you want people to remember,

0:51:420:51:46

you want people to think about why they're at a funeral.

0:51:460:51:50

Sacred music is what your mother sang to you when you were a child,

0:51:500:51:54

that's what's sacred,

0:51:540:51:57

and if someone wants that for their son who's been killed,

0:51:570:52:00

that's bloody sacred, and so that's what they told

0:52:000:52:03

the archdiocese and so forth, and that's how Danny boy,

0:52:030:52:07

or the Londonderry Air, got played and sung at most of these funerals,

0:52:070:52:12

and they said to the archdiocese,

0:52:120:52:15

"Up yours, we're going to do anyway,

0:52:150:52:17

"and you can excommunicate us if you want."

0:52:170:52:19

JAZZ VERSION OF DANNY BOY

0:52:190:52:22

# Oh, Danny boy

0:52:280:52:31

# The pipes, the pipes are calling... #

0:52:330:52:37

As Danny Boy was recorded again and again, vocalists of the 21st century

0:52:370:52:42

like Tara O'Grady

0:52:420:52:44

looked back into the past to breathe new life into the song.

0:52:440:52:49

I've taken a sad song and changed it.

0:52:490:52:53

I swing it, so it's a little more up-tempo

0:52:530:52:55

because I don't want to be sad when I'm singing it.

0:52:550:52:59

It's got soul, and more so than any other Irish traditional song.

0:52:590:53:06

I think that's why you can take it anywhere.

0:53:060:53:08

# ..when summer's... #

0:53:080:53:10

But even in the new Millennium,

0:53:100:53:13

singers still struggle to reach that infamous Danny Boy high note.

0:53:130:53:18

I mean, as a singer, Danny Boy is quite an undertaking.

0:53:180:53:22

You don't quite realise it, because most people go, oh, yeah,

0:53:220:53:24

Danny Boy... # Oh, Danny boy The pipes, the pipes are calling. #

0:53:240:53:28

Sounds kind of OK, not too much of a range.

0:53:280:53:30

# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow. #

0:53:300:53:39

And then you get to the first chorus.

0:53:390:53:41

# And I shall hear though soft you tread above me. #

0:53:410:53:45

Right, so again, getting up there, but not crazy.

0:53:450:53:48

# 'Tis I'll be there in sunshine or in shadow. #

0:53:480:53:56

You see, that's the part everyone has trouble with!

0:53:560:53:59

# Then you shall hear whisper that you love me. #

0:53:590:54:04

Now I'm doing that in my kind of falsetto voice.

0:54:040:54:07

I just go up like, # Der... #

0:54:070:54:09

I do the falsetto thing that I hear often, and you'll hear in,

0:54:090:54:13

like, doo-wop or jazz or blues singers, they'll just do this.

0:54:130:54:18

That's the only I could figure out how to do it, how to cover it,

0:54:180:54:21

otherwise if I didn't do that, I couldn't go up there.

0:54:210:54:24

So be very careful what key you start it in, because you're going

0:54:240:54:27

to end up on very dangerous ground if you don't hit those notes.

0:54:270:54:33

Danny Boy is easily Fred Weatherly's most famous lyric.

0:54:360:54:41

He had died a national figure, and a rich man, in 1929.

0:54:410:54:45

But his Irish-American sister-in-law, Margaret,

0:54:480:54:51

who introduced him to the Londonderry Air which had

0:54:510:54:53

fitted his Danny Boy verses so perfectly, was not so fortunate.

0:54:530:54:58

Fred's brother, Eddie, and Margaret,

0:55:000:55:02

had been receiving a small allowance from Fred until his death.

0:55:020:55:07

But when Eddie died during America's Great Depression,

0:55:070:55:10

Margaret's life fell apart.

0:55:100:55:12

Fred's great-grandson, Anthony Mann,

0:55:140:55:17

has recently discovered writings of Margaret's

0:55:170:55:19

in which she expressed her anger at Fred

0:55:190:55:22

for failing to acknowledge her role in the creation of Danny Boy.

0:55:220:55:26

"How could he leave the false statement that he had

0:55:290:55:32

"Danny Boy sent to him? It is a bitter pill to me.

0:55:320:55:36

"I always felt pain that I lost something."

0:55:360:55:40

Margaret didn't have a legal case to stand on

0:55:400:55:42

because he didn't plagiarise her, but I think there's a moral issue.

0:55:420:55:49

I think Margaret gave something of her to him

0:55:490:55:52

in her interpretation of music which Fred somehow was able to use to make

0:55:520:55:56

this Irish song, so I think he owed her

0:55:560:56:00

and should have acknowledged her personally, which he didn't.

0:56:000:56:04

Soon after she wrote this, Margaret mentally deteriorated.

0:56:060:56:10

In 1939, the Irish-American woman

0:56:100:56:12

who had been written out of Danny Boy's history by Fred Weatherly,

0:56:120:56:16

died, penniless and insane.

0:56:160:56:20

# But come ye back

0:56:230:56:26

# When summer's in the meadow... #

0:56:260:56:32

2013 was the 100th anniversary of the publication

0:56:320:56:37

of Fred Weatherly's Danny Boy.

0:56:370:56:39

This was celebrated

0:56:390:56:41

during the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture year

0:56:410:56:44

with a mass sing-along.

0:56:440:56:46

# 'Tis I'll be here

0:56:460:56:47

# In sunshine or in shadow... #

0:56:470:56:53

People in Derry, everyone likes to think they can sing, whether they

0:56:530:56:57

can not is irrelevant, so we have kind of bragging rights on Danny Boy.

0:56:570:57:04

It was very emotional when we had thousands of people

0:57:060:57:09

in the Guildhall Square singing Danny Boy.

0:57:090:57:12

I suppose that was the song coming home after all of this time,

0:57:120:57:17

and also, it was Derry reclaiming the song, saying,

0:57:170:57:22

"Don't forget, this is our song."

0:57:220:57:24

It seems to move every generation.

0:57:320:57:35

It's one of those songs that is here, it's hovering, it has wings,

0:57:350:57:39

it's a free thing all by itself, and you can't tame a song like that.

0:57:390:57:41

Well done, everyone!

0:57:430:57:45

I know it comes out of the past, it comes here in the present,

0:57:470:57:50

and you know that it's not going to not go on.

0:57:500:57:53

It's going to go on for ever, that song.

0:57:530:57:55

It's kind of like Guinness at this point. It's everywhere.

0:57:550:58:00

# Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling... #

0:58:000:58:08

It's probably a journey that will never end, and when you come

0:58:080:58:12

and all the flowers are dying, and they will be for a long time,

0:58:120:58:16

but then they will bloom again, and Danny will still be

0:58:160:58:20

on the road, and you never know, because somewhere, the pipes,

0:58:200:58:26

the pipes will be calling.

0:58:260:58:28

# Whoa, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, the pipes are calling

0:58:280:58:33

# Oh, Danny boy

0:58:330:58:34

# From glen to glen and even down the mountain side

0:58:340:58:39

# The summer's gone and all the roses falling

0:58:390:58:45

# It's you, it's you must go and I must abide

0:58:450:58:49

# Oh, Danny boy

0:58:490:58:51

# But come ye back when summer's in the meadow... #

0:58:510:58:55

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:550:58:57

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